C&C Labs News Wire

— Wednesday, April 30, 2003 —

Hawaiianboy here and I am now part of the news staff. I will try to keep you up to date with all the new info with Generals. If I make a mistake, sorry. I am new at this type of format, but I learn fast.

Last edited by hawaiianboy on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 5:47:15 PM.

malx of generals.at has started a petition about the Generals Lobby. To sign it or read more than is below, go here.

We've started an online-petition for a better lobby. Though there are more important issues to fix up for now, we want to remind EAP that we aren't satisfied with the lobby. There are lots of really nasty things and we want EAP to change them. Of course, they won't be able to change all of them now, but they maybe can add some of our wishes to the add-on and I hope they'll be able to add some features now as well.

The CNC website Planet CNC has a "sneak peek" at a NEW mod coming out for Generals.
Planet CNC's hosted site Generals Gold has released the beta version of their Generals mod.

And one final note: I would like to commend MicScoTho with his job on last week's blast of maps. I think he did a great job. Once I can play Generals (I need to find a way to get a new PC first), I hope that I can do the same.

Last edited by Luckie on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 6:45:28 AM.

— Monday, April 28, 2003 —

I'm posting this a day late, but I wanted to make sure that I let everyone know that CNC Sector is back online and fully operational! They've already started adding more maps and other fan created files, so be sure to pay them a visit!

Edit: Unless my internet is deceiving me, their servers seem to be down at the moment, but they should come back up at any moment.

— Friday, April 25, 2003 —

It's that time of day again! Today I have added three new maps to the website. The first map is by Falsadoom and the second and third maps are by ZHaDuM. I enjoyed playing on these maps immensely and I was unable to find any design flaws or bugs in any of them. You can find them for download on our Maps Download page. As always, here's their information:

Glacial AssaultDescription:

Max Players: 4 From the Author: Battle on a huge iceberg! Map was designed with gameplay in mind. Multi-level terrain while still allowing a face paced free flowing game. The AI is quite capable of giving a challenge and actually keeps a strong roving force ready to react and protect, as well as garrisoning the base. Sometimes will even use both of these together for a strong attack.

Max Players: 4 From the Author: "Urban Dread" is a realistic recreation of my childhood hometown on Long Island, NY. Details include a baseball field, 10 residental blocks, a parkway, river, commercial areas, beachfront property... GLA will enjoy hundreds of civilian cars to use. Ground troops can control over 100 residental homes. A good amount of time was spent building this map, so I hope you enjoy it!

Max Players: 2 From the Author: Z-ArenA is a 1 vs 1 tournament style map and comes in both day and night versions. A good deal of thought went into the design and layout of this map so that it offers a diverse selection of attack and defense methods. Although small in size, expect long and furious battles if both players make it past the first few minutes!

— Thursday, April 24, 2003 —

I apologize for posting these maps late today, but better late than never, right? Anyway, today I've got two maps for the fans. The first of which is an interesting map of Iraq. The author even included an edited version of the minimap, complete with labels. The second map is a nice even four player map, featuring vast forested areas. Here's the standard info for the two maps:

IraqDescription:

Max Players: 6 From the Author: War on Terrorism. There are six bases in this map. The base in baghdad is the most protected, however it is in the middle, and therefore more likely to get attacked. There is a base in Kuwait (for American forces), a base in Jordan, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. There are also a lot of oil derricks. This map shows exact borders and specific areas of Iraq.

Max Players: 8 From the Author: Surreal 8 player skirmish map with symbolic elements (for a change of pace). Gives AI full flexability to expand and attack with full potential. The center of the map can lead to some very interesting gameplay in tactical ways.

— Tuesday, April 22, 2003 —

As part of our effort to get all of our content pages updated with the latest information, the Civilians page has been updated.It now includes up-to-date civilian (or neutral) structures, including screenshots of them and descriptions of them.

You can visit the Civilians page in the Other Info menu or by clicking here.

Max Players: 4 From the Author: GOL, also known as Generals OnLine, is a great map for all players. Inspired by my works of TOL (Tiberian OnLine) for Tiberian Sun...I believe that GOL is much better and that is saying something considering TOL was widly played on Tiberian Sun. More Info: This map is a money map. If you love money maps, this is a good one.

Max Players: 2 From the Author: This is a 2 player map for C&C Generals. Have fun :D More Info: A nice map with a country town setting, with a bit of an industrial theme. Comes complete with moving cars, pedestrians, and of course trains. Great map design.

— Monday, April 21, 2003 —

FedNet is coming back folks; this time with a new outlook, plan, and slogan: editors_only! They're planning on becoming a center for CNC modding and mapping. Right now they've got their forums up, so head on over to Federation Studios and join!Oh, and by-the-way, watch out for the soon to be incoming stampede! ;-)

Last edited by Mike on Monday, April 21, 2003 at 7:23:17 PM.

— Friday, April 18, 2003 —

Jamie of CNC Sector has announced that CNC Sector will be closing down shortly, for a variety of reasons including time and cost of running the servers. It's always unfortunate when great fansites of the CNC community are forced to close. With each site that closes, it always feels as if a bit of the community has been lost. Jamie and Sipas ran an A+ quality website, and I'd like to thank them and all of their staff members for contributing so much to the CNC community. Here's part of what Jamie posted:

As of tonight, myself and moe are leaving the site. This has been a very hard to decision to make and has been undergoing alot of thinking over the last few weeks. Lack of motivation for the site has killed off efforts to update as frequent, and, as always - we are only 16/17, we have busy demanding lives just like all of you.

If you want to read the rest of Jamie's message, be sure to head over to CNC Sector. Sipas and Patton have also posted goodbye messages, with Sipas explaining the true costs of running the server and updating the website. Good luck to all of the staff members in whatever they choose to do in the future.

— Friday, April 18, 2003 —

Hey everyone! Here's the latest news from EA Production Support Technician Col. Burt:

Hello Community,

We’re starting an Official Command & Conquer Trivia Contest on the Generals message boards. This will officially start on Wednesday the 23rd and we will also be accepting questions submitted by board users. So not only can the community win a Generals T-shirt by answering the trivia questions correctly, they can also win by having a submitted question chosen for use in the contest.

— Thursday, April 17, 2003 —

Game Company Retools To Represent Iraq War
Uniforms Changed In 'Command And Conquer'
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- If you missed the action in the Iraqi desert, you can fight Saddam all over again on your PC.
Electronic Arts is retooling its "Command and Conquer Generals" computer video game.
Armchair generals will get to battle Saddam's elite troops. The generic uniforms of the earlier versions are being changed so the U.S. 101st Airborne will fight the Iraqi Republican Guard.
The company said it started on the updated video war game months before the actual war began.

This is interesting but probably false. Somewhere down the line, the fanmade mods and maps must have gotten confused with the fact that EA made the game. It seems FOX had it right, and many of the people to follow had it wrong. Not all however had it wrong, The Associated Press's Article had it correct. But articles which seem to be wrong include: Channel 5 (The Boston Channel), Channel 4000, and The Bakersfield Channel.
Finally,in a side note, it seems that CNC Renegade has been featured on the popular: TechLive television show on TechTV. The story was about the similarities with the war on Iraq and how new Iraqi mods will be coming. You can visit TechTV here.

Update: I just caught the second half of the Today Show's take on the "war in videogame" issue. They actually brought two "experts" in for details. I got the feeling that they weren't there to batter Generals or any other one of the games in which they mentioned, but they certainly didn't do a lot to protect the games. They did make two very good points for each side: 1) These games could possibly be used to teach gang members new ways of fighting and 2) they aren't intended for the younger audiences anyway and usually are played by older teens and up. Well, thats it. I'm taking off for Florida in a few hours but that doesn't mean that I won't be seeing Generals. I'll have my eyes on the news. It seems in the past few days, I've seen more of Generals on TV than anywhere else!

— Wednesday, April 16, 2003 —

In Fox's online article The Fighting's Not Over for Gamers, Fox's Marla Lehner discusses the many Iraq-related Generals maps and mods that have been created and released by Command and Conquer Fans.

NEW YORK — The intense street fighting in Baghdad is over, but video game enthusiasts are still working on liberating the Iraqi capital.

Gamers who play the popular PC title Command and Conquer Generals have created about 1,000 additional realistic-looking digital maps and missions for the game to make it look more like the actual ground fights that happened overseas.

"The maps are representations of the landscape. They [gamers] watch say, Fox News, then pull off the data," said Mark Skaggs, executive producer of the game created by Electronic Arts. "They'll say, 'I saw this building here and other buildings around it in a circle.'"

The article even mentions Morphious of GenEdit2k. To read the full article, be sure to click here!

In another media-related side note, Reuters reports that Command & Conquer Generals is holding the number 2 sales spot for the second week in a row, after holding the #1 spot for three weeks. You can read that information and more in the article, War Games Top U.S. Video Game Sales Charts.

In four of the last five weeks, fully 50 percent of the top games list has been either stand-alone war games, or add-on packages for existing war games.

— Wednesday, April 9, 2003 —

We've just got sent a new Generals map created by a lead EA developer. The map was sent in by Glenn Burtis (aka Col. Burt) of EA. It's a truly awesome map, both aesthetically pleasing and balanced. This is the first officially unofficial map from EA. It's been added to our downloads section, so head on over there and download it.

Flash FireDescription:

Max Players: 2 Other Info: Flash Fire is a truly awesome map to behold, complete with forest sounds and waves rolling in. The map was an attempt to incorporate more than one terrain type in a single map. It is an island setting and was designed to be aesthetically pleasing as well as balanced. This map is great for both online and skirmish play.

File Size: 0.22 MB File Type: .zip Author: EA

— Tuesday, April 8, 2003 —

If you're a talented modder interested in creating a Command & Conquer Generals mod, then you've come to the right place! We're currently willing and looking to host a major CNC Generals mod on Generals World, at no cost to you!

If your total conversion mod is chosen to be hosted on Generals World, you will be provided with a website area for your mod. You will be able to manage both your mod and its website. You'll also receive the full backing and support of Generals World and our staff, and we will assist you in any way we can.

What are we looking for in a mod? Excellence. The mod doesn't have to be anything in particular, but we are looking for mods that excel at what they attempt to do. Mods that modify a large variety of game play units, structures, and features will be preferred. We're not looking for a mod that has already been completed - rather we are looking for a mod that is still in developmental or planning stages. As for modders, we're looking for dedicated leaders who will be able to form and control a development team for your mod.We’ll be able to provide assistance in this aspect.

Interested? Then send me an email at MicScoTho@cncgeneralsworld.com. Be sure to include a full list of ideas you have for a mod and any other information that you find may be helpful to us.

— Tuesday, April 8, 2003 —

I've finally got around to adding a few more maps to Generals World. I've got four new maps today. As always you can download them from our Downloads: Maps page. Here are their descriptions:

Knife FightDescription:

Max Players: 4 From the Author: Knife Fight is a revival of one of my personel favorite maps, and probably one of the most popular, for the game Emperor Battle for Dune. Like the original version for Emperor, it is a very small map, 250x250, and makes you fight for the middle in very close quarter combat... hence the name Knife Fight. The layout is almost exact to the original version and even with the infantry rock in the middle. The Textures are obviously not the same... the rock is quite a bit lighter then the original but the environment is a very similar Arrakis spice colour.

Max Players: 4 From the Author: Desert Forest is a 4 player map with moderate-high resources. A couple oil derriks around the map and crates. Half the map is desert and half is forest. AI fully done and works for skirmish/multiplayer.

Max Players: 2 From the Author: A map that is playable skirmish or multiplayer, it is set on a snowy winter map. The map has a small town and is populated, plus it also contains industries and heaps of trees.

— Tuesday, April 8, 2003 —

CNC: Unleashed got a contest up for their 1 millionth visitor. The price is a year long exclusive beta~testing of a CNC: Unleashed mod of your choice! Go to CNC: Unleashed now and find out what you have to do to win.

Last edited by Unidentifiedname on Tuesday, April 8, 2003 at 8:52:58 AM.

— Wednesday, April 2, 2003 —

GameSpot reports that the Generals expansion, Command & Conquer Generals: Sandstorm, is scheduled for release in Q4 2003. For the article at GameSpot, click here. Please note that this information has not been officially confirmed by EA at this time. In the meantime however, GenEdit2k has some information about the expansion from a "source" at EA. This information is also not yet official, and any expansion for Generals must be in early development stages. To read the info from GenEdit2k, please click here. Be sure to check back for the latest news updates here at Generals World.
Update: Sandstorm was yet another April Fool's Joke, as confirmed by Renegade Generals. A Generals expansion pack has been confirmed however, both previously by Mark Skaggs and by a game tester opening as posted on this page.

— Wednesday, April 2, 2003 —

I've just finished updating the GLA Units page. Everything has been completely re-written, thanks to lots of help from Sagi, a Generals World visitor. Thanks Sagi.

The USA Units and Structures and the China Units and Structures pages have also had a few small tweaks.

As for the maps that everyone is looking for... I've got about 25 of them waiting to be tested now. I'm hoping to get a few of them tested today so that I can release them tomorrow. Be sure to check back for more updates.

— Tuesday, April 1, 2003 —

Wow! Amazing one million! I would like to take this time to thank the little people...actually, the big people. All one wonderful million of them! When we started working on Generals World, after the "success" of RA2 and Beyond, one hundred hits in one day was an amazing number. To reach one million in just over one year is amazing. You do the math! I would like to thank all you, our visitors: Thank you.

Today the newly established Electronic Arts Los Angeles team announced the sequel to the reputedly dead 3D action series, Command & Conquer™ Renegade 2, working title „Battlefield“. „Due to the move from Las Vegas to the new EALA studio, and the takeover of the previous Renegade team, additional resources have become available, which can now be used for Renegade 2.

MicScoTho Note: Although it appears legit, take it with a grain of salt. Remember folks, it is April Fool's Day after all. ;-) We'll update this post accordingly if needed.
Edit: Sorry to disappoint you folks, but it was just a clever April Fool's joke.